aPODD Foundation Information

aPODD is a registered charity focused on drug development for childhood cancer. Drug discovery and cancer research have progressed dramatically over the past decades. Based on the improved understanding of the pathological mechanisms at the molecular level, better and more targeted drugs are being developed for adult cancers. Unfortunately, very few discovery programmes for childhood cancers are initiated and these “new generation” drugs developed for adults are not systematically evaluated in childhood cancers. When this eventually happens on rare occasions and drugs are approved for paediatric use, it will be many years after approval for adult diseases. Therefore, children gain very limited benefit from current drug development efforts. Without newer, better drugs to treat childhood cancers further clinical improvements are not likely and too many children will continue to die of cancer throughout the world. aPODD was founded to address this pressing need. We are solely driven by patients' needs. We work together with academia, paediatric hospitals and industry to accelerate the development of better drugs against childhood cancers. Our efforts will lead to more drugs being studied for childhood cancers and, eventually, more drugs approved for use in children. Better drugs will mean that many more children will be cured. We target childhood cancer because children are our future and every child deserves one.